I am blogging about my journey through the Common Core era. I will discuss my success, failures, and growth.

Education

09/24/2016

I began student teaching 25 years ago. Surprisingly, if you look at my teaching style today and back then, not a lot has changed. I'm not saying that I haven't evolved as a teacher, nothing is farther from the truth, but there are a great many similarities. If you were to take a bird's eye view of my room from both eras, and you didn't look very closely, besides the style of dress and hair, and let's not mention age, there would be very few differences.

Let's look at my writing program. During student teaching, my master taught me two strategies. In her class she explicitly modeled the writing process and gave guided writing practice when she assigned similar writing assignments and monitored the students by being available and walking the room. The second strategy she insisted on was Writer's Workshop. Through this program she was able to give students independent practice by allowing them to follow the model she initially taught in the modeled direct instruction lesson while differentiating her instruction by conferencing with the students individually.

When I opened my own class in 1996, I also used these to strategies to instruct writing. I found success in both reading and writing due to this type of instruction, and I found the students to really enjoy themselves and be engaged during these lessons. Well, eventually as the years went by, this writing style fell out of favor with the powers that may be. My world of education began cycling through the policies and politics of the state as I taught through the phonics era, the balanced reading era, and probably many other educational time periods that I don't even remember. The one time period I do remember is the scripted era. The writing program I began with in college was slowly chiseled away by all the different programs that were "proven" to produce educated adults, but the final nail came from the scripted programs. There was no way to promote independent thinking and writing through Writer's Workshop when all lessons were to be read from a book at a specific point of time in the day determined by your boss, or most likely her boss.

Well, I'm happy to say that Writer's Workshop instruction has come back into educational style full circle. I am now fully encouraged to provide students time and most importantly allow the creativity to flow during writing sessions. My Writer's Workshop program is back full steam. But I will proudly say, that if you were to go closer than a bird's eye view, you would see a very different Writer's Workshop program. I now teach completely to the Common Core Standards when I model that ideal lesson that I want students to learn. Now I don't just say, "Let's write a great story!" I now am very deliberate with the vocabulary I utilize to teach a lesson. Now I may say something like, "Let's begin to write a great narration that introduces a character, follows with a climaxing middle, and ends with a resolution." I would also lay out my expectations such as the story must have some dialogue, use appropriate transitions, and use concrete vocabulary to explain yourself. I also wouldn't just teach how to write narratives, but all genres mandated by Common Core Standards including opinions and expository text.

If you listened in to my student teacher conferences you would see a big difference also. Instead of telling the students how to write a perfect paper so it is easily published and wall perfect, our conferences are student driven. I don't revise the student's work for them, but am there only as a guide, as a facilitator. When a student comes to my conference table, they tell me what they want to work on. They know where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and sometimes they want a review lesson and sometimes they want to take their writing a step further with a challenge lesson. It is their choice, and being their choice, they are so much more engaged! They come to my conference table excited to revise and edit with me. They can't wait for their turn and they can't wait to return back to their desk to try and apply their newfound knowledge. It's wonderful to see!

The last difference you would see between 1995 and now is the student conversations. The old--fashioned Writer's Workshop did not call for peer collaboration. Today, probably at least a fourth of the time spend during Writer's Workshop is spent sharing and discussing ideas and asking for feedback and help. I have added another step in the process where students take their rough drafts to a peer to share positive and corrective feedback. They also work on a rubric together to analyze whether their writing piece is addressing all the Common Core Standards correctly. Students also look to challenge themselves and push their abilities to the fullest.

So yes, my Writer's Workshop has evolved and changed with the times. During the time of Whole Language it was fully welcomed into my class. During the Phonics and Balanced Literacy times, it was utilized but by only parts and pieces. Then it was completely scratched unfortunately during the Scripted Periods, but now its back and running full force with my students and me leading the way. This program I love is so very different from the way I taught it when I was a first year teacher and that is a very good thing. It shows that it is strong enough to last through the winds of change thrown about by the "educational experts", and that means that so am I. Because I have never given up, because I have looked to the positive side and learned from whatever educational program I was thrown, I have become a much better teacher. My Writer's Workshop program is 100 times more powerful than it was 25 years ago when I was a spring chick. We both have adapted, evolved, and become better!

09/21/2016

I have always wanted to become a wise person. I view wise people as respected, knowledgeable, and most importantly, at peace. I've always strived, though very often unsuccessfully, for peace. Now that I'm not a spring chicken, I'm looking forward to that wisdom I've always assumed comes with "older" or more mature age. But I've just come across some new information that changes my whole philosophy on wisdom.

Not all old people are wise! As I observe others at the upper spectrum of the age continuum I see a lot of people less wise, and with definitely less peace than I have. As I researched this dilemma, I found I believe, the answer to all my questions. The answer I really wish I would've discovered many, many years ago. Wisdom comes with experiences and reflection on those experiences. It also comes with a lot of trial and error. But when you make a mistake, you must take time to reflect. You must think about what caused the mistake and what can be done next time to avoid that same mistake. You must analyze the situation and look at all the variables. This is the formula for wisdom. Now I know I didn't come up with these "words of wisdom" on my own. I have been reading a lot of books lately and at the moment I can't recall where I read and reflected to become so wise sounding, but it could have come from the Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen, or maybe even the Bible. When I figure it out, I will let you know.

But as of now, I know why I am so happy in my classroom. I have peace and I am definitely increasing my wisdom. These past three years during my employ as a Common Core Demonstration Teacher I have been given the luxury of time. Because I am paid extra days and hours, I have time to analyze and reflect on all aspects of my teaching. I carefully look at my students, their needs, their abilities, their wants. I analyze the Common Core standards and discover what exactly a fourth grade student should come to class knowing and what they need to learn. Then I reflect on this information and create lessons specifically tailored to these students. After the lessons I again reflect, just like in the previous post on what went well, and what needs to be changed and how. This I realize, as I reflect in this entry, is why I have so much peace in my classroom. I am becoming wise! Or maybe more appropriately said, wiser... Too bad I didn't gain this valuable insight when I was a 25 year old teacher!

My school district subscribes to the RCD model for curriculum planning. RCD means Rigorous Curriculum Design, I have to say it not only for my readers, but so that I remember the meaning also. Basically the idea is that a group of high level administrators and experienced teachers backward map the Common Core Standards and develop an entire yearly plan for all the classes in the district. The RCD team will use the standards to develop formative tests and projects for the teachers to best teach to the State Framework. A good majority of teachers in my district do not care for this plan, but I actually really like using it.

The reason that I like this planning model is that us teachers have the freedom to decide how to teach the Common Core Standards. We get to use our teacher judgement to decide which books we will use. We choose the writing system/program that works best with our philosophies. We can decide how to teach grammar, spelling, and punctuation, whether with worksheets (hopefully not too much) or within text and writing application. We decide how to teach listening and speaking, whether through Socratic Seminars, Literature Circles, or whatever fun and engaging way that works best for our teaching style. We have the freedom under the RCD model, as long as we teach the Common Core state standards within the time frame (Scope and Sequence) mandated by the district.

Well, today I gave a project task written by the RCD planners as a cumulative activity to tie all standards together in a meaningful application. I put a lot of thought and planning into how I would present this task to my students to ensure optimal success. Last year I had given this same project task and it was a huge flop. The students just didn't understand what was being asked of them and they were not prepared to complete all components simultaneously. That was my reflection after reviewing these week long projects last year.

So this year, I was determined not to make the same mistakes! I decided I would make a list of all the activities that had to be done to complete the task. I also added activities such as article annotation, gist writing and 3 column notes to better understand the articles they were reading. The gist of the project is that students would read two articles and integrate the information to write an opinionated essay.

Well, today was indeed a disaster. We were in the third day of working on this project and I realized half the class was completely lost and off task. All I could think of was ,"Three lost days of instruction!!" And it was completely my fault! As I reflected, I knew that I had asked too much of them. I had over explained the task and the requirements. So when I turned the assignment over to them to complete individually they were overwhelmed with too many instructions.

Well, good news is that its the beginning of the year and I can be sure not to over plan next time... Bad news, I wasted a really good task and will have to improvise to provide the students what they need to integrate and apply all the skills and knowledge gained during this RCD unit. I do know that next year I will try to find the happy medium between too much and too little instruction!

I love this video of a kindergarten teacher doing Math Circles in her classroom. Although I don't teach in the lower grades I was able to "steal" so many great ideas and apply them to my fourth grade classroom. I really like the opportunities for conversations and the academic vocabulary the students are provided by the teacher. Hope you enjoy!

09/20/2016

I like to do an activity for math called 'Four Heads are Better than One'. I use it for problem solving in math class, after I have taught the students the content and they have practiced and wrestled a bit with the ideas presented. I have my students seated in pods of four for easy collaboration. The materials they need are small whiteboards, markers, erasers, and any notes that can help them jog their memories on the day's lesson. I present a word problem on the overhead projector and the students are to read the problem and solve it on their whiteboards. This is an individual activity so no help is allowed (that will come later). Once they have completed the problem, they are to flip over their boards, thus showing me that they are ready. For those that do not know the answer, I give encouragement to try to put a least one thing on their board, anything that will help the group come up with a solution.

Once the majority of the class has finished, I assign a Captian of each pod. This captain tells her group to stand up (this movement gets the blood and needed glucose flowing to the brain for added brain activity). Then she proceeds to tell each group member to reveal and explain their answer. The team then listens, thinks and negotiates the correct answer. Like I said, even if a student cannot assess the correct answer yet in the first step, he can participate in the discussion because he has at some type of answer or idea to contribute. The big idea of this second step is collaboration. By getting all members to debate, explain, and negotiate answers, you are encouraging highly valued discussions that not only engage students mentally, but create benefits that cross over into all areas of curriculum. In addition, you are promoting 21st Century Learning by assigning a leader to lead a group that must be flexible and adaptable.

The last piece of this activity is the presentation of the answer. I assign a member from each group to be the representative. The representative stands up (so you have multiple students standing up at once). I randomly choose one of the representatives to share and explain the team's answer. Besides giving the student a chance to practice speaking in front of others, they are practicing using the academic math vocabulary inadvertently practiced in the second step during team discussion. Plus it's great for English Language Learners! After he has shared his answer, the other representatives critique by placing a thumb up, or to the side. Thumbs to the side mean that he is missing something, and thumbs never are pointed down. As a class, we then discuss and/or work through the problem. Lastly, teams celebrate either their success, or their effort, with a team handshake.

This math problem solving activity is fun and no matter how many times my fourth grade students practice it, I still hear cheers when I say, "Ok everyone! Prepare for 'Four Heads are Better than One!'

09/19/2016

This summer right before school started I got the opportunity to give my first EDTalk at the Better Together, California Teacher's Summit at CSUSB. It was a fantastic experience and I will definitely write an entry about it in the future. But for now, here is the written form of my speech. I really want to spread the message of how if all teachers reach all students, we would have a completely different education system. Hope you enjoy!

Every year I set a personal goal for myself, something that I can work on to better my teaching skills and thus better my students. Last year I decided to focus on Reaching all students through Cooperative Learning.

I am a 4th grade dual immersion teacher. What that means is that I teach all Common Core Standards in two languages. Half of my day I teach these standards in English, and the other half I teach them in Spanish. 50% of my students are English learners, and the other 50% are Spanish learners. That means that at any time during the day, whether it be Science, Math, Language Arts, or any other subject, half of my students are learning in their 2nd language.

So return with me to the first day of the last school year. I’m all ready and excited to begin working on my goal of reaching All students. I began my day in English and I had normal first day participation. Most students walked in very shy and weren’t ready to show me their true colors yet. I noticed this boy David. He was not shy, rather the opposite, ready to participate, a firecracker actually with lots of energy and drive. But what I noticed most was his award winning smile. Then came the switch to the Spanish language, remember, I teach Common Core Standards in Spanish half the day. David’s whole demeanor changed when the class began speaking in Spanish. He did not want to participate and he completely shut down. This happened every day.

I’m sure you all have students like this in your class. If you teach Science, you may have those students who show no interest. Or maybe if you’re a math teacher you’ve seen the students who have been unsuccessful in the past so they come to your class already defeated and unwilling to try. Many of these “unreachables” become our behavior problems. Of course, educating in California, we all have a good number of English Language Learners. No matter what the subject matter we teach, or the assignment we hold in the education field, I think we can all relate to our desire to want to reach all students and the struggles we encounter as we try.

So I focused on reaching David. I wanted to make sure he felt seen and important in the classroom. I called on him, often. He of course never raised his hand. Those raising their hands were the students who didn’t need my attention. You know the students, the extroverts, “I know the answer!” The native language speakers, “I know how to say the answer!” And the high achievers, “The answer is so easy!” But when I called on Isaiah, he shut down even more! I could see it in his eyes, like a deer caught in headlights. His stress level increased exponentially and made it impossible for him to focus and have success.

I tried to ensure that he had easy access to the information. I made graphic organizers, used manipulatives and realia. I held 10:2 discussions where I talked for ten minutes, and then let the students talk among themselves for two minutes to process information. After the student discussions I would call on David, really trying to give him a question that would bring definite success for him, but I got the same result. He would not participate, or even try, he acted as if he were defeated, and that winning smile of his never appeared during Spanish time.

I realized that I had to research Cooperative Learning strategies quickly if I was going to be able to reach him before his grades and self-esteem plummeted. So I read articles and books, I attended conferences, I observed other teachers. And then I had a realization! I was teaching Cooperative Learning all wrong!

First of all, I found that you must strategically plan for diverse grouping. Diverse grouping, it’s all over the Common Core Standards. I initially thought, “Easy, I group students all the time. Their desks are grouped in pods of four and I encourage communication and group tasks daily”. But I learned that that is not diverse grouping. I needed to really plan and think about my students. I had to analyze every one of them and decide where they fit best in the classroom. Who were my language learners? My high and low achievers? My extroverts and introverts? Who were possible behavior issues? Who were Friends? Who were enemies? What ethnic and cultural groups were represented in my class? Gifted? Special Education Students? And after analyzing everyone, I had to strategically place them in groups that were the most beneficial for every student. I needed truly diverse groups.

Next I had to look at time equity. Did I really give everyone equal time to share and practice the language and standard orally? Well, when I asked a question and looked for raised hands, this was definitely not equitable. Again, only the extroverts, “I know the answer!” The native language speakers, “I know how to say the answer!” The high achievers, “The answer is so easy!” were participating. This was not equitable. Then I thought about the 10:2 discussions and thought, “No , the same student populations are still dominating the conversations.” What about random cold calling… No, remember David who would freeze up if his name were called.

No my time equity was horrible!! Luckily, I learned a new strategy to ensure that I was reaching ALL students. I assigned seat partners letters, seated side by side letter A and B. I taught my lesson say, lecturing on Rain Forest ecosystems, for 10 minutes and then instead of asking for a volunteer or cold calling, or saying discuss in groups! I said, “Partner A, talk to Partner B for 30 seconds about Rain Forests.” After 30 seconds, Partner B would say, “ I really like what you said about …” and then paraphrase what his partner had said. This ensures that he is actively listening while his partner shares. Then Partner B will share. The whole class responds in this manner, thus reaching ALL Students.

Now I know you’re probably thinking about David, or maybe your own hard to reach students, and you ask, “What about them? What happens to someone like David, who can’t yet form a sentence about the topic, let alone speak for 30 seconds. Well that’s when planning for diverse grouping comes in. I had seated David next to a very patient student who was trained to encourage him to elaborate so he could access his 30 second time slot. If David responded to the rain forest question with, “I like rain forests.” Then his partner would ask, “Do you like rain?” Or “What types of rain forest animals do you like?” Thus David gets his time to practice the subject and language, while his partner gets to model and teach, which is also proven to be great for the brain and cognitive development. It’s a win, win situation!

Lastly, I learned to truly make this type of cooperative classroom work, I needed to team build. I needed to create opportunities for these students to find similarities and respect for each other so they would be willing to help those in need. I planned short fun, non-academic activities for them. For example, in a group of four, I would ask, “What is your favorite ice cream flavor?” Say that one student responded, “Chocolate”. And another said, “vanilla”. And then the remaining two said strawberry and chocolate. Well, now we just built a bridge. They know that two members of their group like chocolate and they begin to see similarities, rather than differences. You can also ask a more open ended question like, “What is your dream house?” Give them each 30 seconds to share, time equity, and again, and you have built another bridge.

Also for team building I like to do dance activities. Everyone in the class stands, I put on fun music, and a chosen member of each team dances in front of their own teammates, crazily most likely, while her team mirrors or mimics her. If you look out at the whole class, you see 8 groups of four students dancing different dances together. The whole team has fun being silly and dancing with each other. If you take the time to encourage them to have fun together, they will be more likely to want to work together in the future.

So it’s the end of the year and I receive this letter from David.

Dear Ms. Richardson,

You’re personally my best teacher because you motivate me to learn as much Spanish as I can, and also thank you for everything you taught me. Also you are really fun because you play music and do activities with us.

Sincerely,

David.

I’m happy to tell you that David was reached this year! By mid-year, he was fully participating in all classroom activities no matter the subject or language. His self-esteem had skyrocketed and his famous smile had returned. With help from his strategically placed table partners, he learned the vocabulary and grammar necessary to voice his opinions. He was able to access Common Core Standards in his second language. And more importantly, by placing him in a safe environment created by team building activities, he was able to learn that mistakes are good, and something to be learned from. He did not have the fear of failure anymore.

And I know David wasn’t the only one who benefited from the application of true Cooperative Learning Strategies. By not letting my students raise their hands to answer questions, but rather direct them to partner or group discussions allowing for time equity, all students were reached at their own differentiated level. All students were teachers and models for others. All students were pushed to a higher level of thinking due to peer interaction and the processing of new information. And all students had a safe environment to practice and learn.

As you begin your new school year, I want to encourage you to plan how you will reach all students. I hope that you will rethink the common practice of cold calling or asking students to raise their hands to respond. Imagine the change we could bring about if we multiplied all of you reading today’s blog , and we multiplied that number by the amount of students we teach, and we were able to reach every single one of them! Let’s do some miraculous things in our classrooms! Come on educators of the future generation! Encourage your students to stop raising their hands and instead actively communicate with each other!

Today I presented at our school's staff meeting. My principal asked me to help him explain how to use the new program we're using, AVID, and how to apply it to a Common Core lesson. I was initially excited to present. For the past three years I have held an extra title besides my classroom teacher title of Common Core Demonstration Teacher. I will explain in later posts what this job entails, but for now I'll tell you that I get the perk of going to any conference, anywhere in the United States that interests me. It has been a great three years!

So I was very excited to be trusted to share my hard earned knowledge and experience with my peers. I chose to demonstrate a lesson on Close Reading which focuses on the conference "Falling in Love with Close Reading" by Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts. I spent a weekend gathering my thoughts, rereading the book I got at the conference, and making a really great PowerPoint.

And today I presented my lesson. It was actually a bit of a let down. If you continue to read my entries, you will easily find that I am a huge introvert. Presentations are very hard for me, but I do them to overcome my fears and grow. I figure that if I am asking my students to subscribe to the Growth Mindset, that I must do the same. I also present because I think I have some great knowledge within me and if I want to help educate the future generation it doesn't stop within my classroom. If I can influence a few teachers, than my influence and knowledge multiplies exponentially.

But I am off topic... back to the presentation today. It went fine. Everyone present was respectful. The teacher who always sleeps at meetings was awake so that's a good thing. The principal loved the lesson and what it represented, although he did leave for a portion of the meeting. It is hard to put my finger on the problem but I think I just get so excited about teaching a lesson that I feel let down if I cannot successful transfer this passion to other educators.

I wonder if it is the presentation. I sometimes feel that I talk over their heads. But when I plan for the discussion, I don't want to bore them or insult their intelligence with ideas that are too basic. It is hard to ask for true feedback also. No one wants to hurt my feelings by telling me what I really need to know. I hear, "That was a great presentation!" and "Good job!" But I know something is missing... It is lonely sometimes being in this position but I know it will be worth it in the end. I just have to remember that my goal is to share my knowledge with other educators. The more times I practice presenting, the more I can reflect, and the more I grow! Thank you for helping me reflect!